136 THE CHRISTIAÑ'S TEEASURÈ. (SEEM. XXXVIII. claim a good share in this world, and the blessings of it: You feed deliciously, you are dressed in gay colours and gold, and you have wealth laid up in store for many years to come. Poor vain creatures ! What is all your treasure ? What is your property in it ? A sorry property in lands, and a large estate, when not a clod of the earth, nor a penny of the money shall turn to your real and lasting benefit ! I grant that you possess some of the good things of this world indeed. But your riches and plenty are not real and proper blessings, while you are afar from Christ, and strangers to him : Your own unbelief and impenitence, and rebellion against God, turn all the comforts of the world into curses : It is only the grace of Christ can take off the.curse, and sanctify this world into a blessing. Life is not yours ; it is not for your final advantage, while you waste it in vanity and sinful amusements: A long life spent in this manner, shall but add to your guilt, and aggravate your condemnation. Death is not a benefit, but a dreadful hour to you, for it delivers you over to the full power of Satan, that cruel tormenter, and opens the scene of your everlasting sor- rows. Things present are not blessings to you, while you re- solve to continue in this sinful state. You abuse the day- light, and waste it in trifles or in crimes : or at best you spend it in an eager pursuit of the things of the world, with the neglect of God. The night is given to recruit nature for new services, but you seize the shadows of the evening to make a screen for your secret iniquities, and hide your sins behind the curtains of midnight. You feed on the fruits of the earth, and other rich pro- visions of divine bounty ; but perhaps you make them instruments of shameful intemperance : Or at best you lay out the strength of them in empty follies, or in low earthly designs, without a thought of God or heaven. The morning and the evening wait upon you in long successions, but you are heaping up iniquities from morning to evening. You walk daily in the paths of death, and the sun-beams do but light you onward to everlasting darkness. You are nourished by your food for the day of slaughter. Daily and hourly you abuso the goodness of God, and even these abused blessings
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